Taking A Back Road
by VanInBlack
Summary: A short ficlet of Dave's and Erin's journeys on the road. Written for the Pick A Pair Challenge at the Country song prompt Forum.


**Taking A Back Road **

**Pairing: **Rossi/Strauss

**Rating: **K+

**Disclaimer: **The usual, nothing CM related belongs to me, I'm just playing with the characters

**A/N:** This was written in response to the Pick A Pair Challenge on the Country song prompt Forum. The song prompt I was assigned was "Take a back road" by Rodney Atkins. Special thanks to Daisyangel and the moderators for setting up the challenge. I apologize for not having been able to make the deadline, but life and especially work have been messing with my schedules for months now...

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><p><strong>Taking A Back Road <strong>

.~.~.

This was their idea of a perfect vacation. They didn't need to fly to the Bahamas or Hawaii for two weeks. All they needed was a car, a collection of their favorite music and an extra canister of gas incase they didn't make it to a gas station before the car ran out of it. Then they were out on the road.

Every once in a while they took a long weekend, packed a few things and started out into the middle of nowhere. They usually didn't plan on where to go, they just got in their car and began to drive, avoiding traffic packed highways and taking lonely country roads instead. Every few hours they would stop somewhere and take a walk or have a picnic or whatever possibility their temporary destination offered.

The nights they would spend at a motel or sometimes even in the car, feeling like teenagers escaping their parents' watchful eyes for a few days.

With both their jobs making it sometimes hard to spend quality time together, they needed this kind of escape. It felt good to leave all the responsibilities behind for a while and only think about being Dave and Erin, two middle-aged people, who had found love in each other when they had least expected it and had both been convinced that that ship had sailed for them a long time ago.

They had grown so comfortable with each other that everyone they met on their road trips – which weren't many people, mostly owners of motels and gas stations – thought that, truly, they had to be married for decades.

Normally they didn't bother correcting them. They simply smiled at each other and mentally said a small prayer of thanks to whomever was listening that they'd gotten so lucky.

Some days they would go hours without talking and simply enjoyed the comfortable silence that surrounded them. Other days their conversations would find no end. Those were the nights they would spend in their car, holding hands while watching the sun go down in the west and rise in the east the next morning.

The solitude of their journeys was what brought them closer and closer together. It was what led them to where they were currently standing: in front of an altar of a small chapel somewhere in the state of Virginia, waiting for the pastor to begin.

They barely followed the pastor's words, both recalling the moment Erin had proposed. Of course, she had beat him to it, Dave grinned, if only by a mere second. He wouldn't have it any other way, though.

The moment had been too perfect to pass up.

Their car broke down and they couldn't get reception for their cell phones, so they had to walk to the next town. The road didn't seem to end and about halfway up a hill it started to rain. Erin urged him on, insisting that the next town would be just behind this hill. The moment they reached the top, the rain suddenly stopped and they witnessed the most beautiful sunset on all of their trips. Standing in awe and watching the sun disappear behind the horizon, they were both at a loss for words for some long moments. Yet the thoughts that were going through their minds were exactly the same.

"Marry me," Erin blurted out a split second before Dave was able to say the same words.

.~.~.

"Do you, David Anthony Rossi, take Erin Elizabeth Strauss to be your wife? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect her, forsaking all others and holding only unto her?" The pastor's question brought them back to reality.

"I do," Dave replied solemnly.

"And do you, Erin Elizabeth Strauss, take David Anthony Rossi to be your husband? Do you promise to love, honor, cherish and protect him, forsaking all others and holding only unto him?"

"I do."

They smiled widely at each other.

More than anything, they were happy to get married so quickly. After Dave had said yes to her proposal and kissed her almost senseless, they'd agreed on as short an engagement period as possible. And now, less than two weeks later they were standing in this beautiful little chapel, listening to the minister pronouncing them husband and wife.

"You may now kiss the bride." His last words were barely out when Dave gathered Erin in his arms and brought his lips to hers. They'd just done something they'd both sworn to themselves they'd never do again, still nothing felt more right than making their union official.

Not much later they got back in their car and drove away into the sunset, once again following the road to wherever it might lead them until their everyday life needed them to be back.


End file.
